


Hell Hath No Fury

by QuickLikeLight



Series: Series Finale [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Antagonist Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Character Study, Cora Character Study, Female Character Appreciation, Gen, No Stiles, POV Female Character, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-05-13
Packaged: 2018-03-30 09:58:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3932536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickLikeLight/pseuds/QuickLikeLight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beacon Hills needs her, and Cora’s never been one to back down from a fight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hell Hath No Fury

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by some discussion with Dea, as are many good ideas. It is unbeta'd, but not unedited. Feel free to let me know if you spot errors. 
> 
> For spoilers re: the major character death, you can scroll to the endnotes.

South America was good, but Beacon Hills needs her, and Cora’s never been one to back down from a fight. She has a weapon this time, something to bring them back and make it right: a talisman that turns back time three times, with three drops of her own blood. It is a limit that irks her, but she’s willing to deal with it for this.

She pricks her finger with her own fang, watching the blood pool up before letting it drip onto the warm gold of the charm. The world around her whites out, spins and shifts while she murmurs the chant her adopted packmother taught her, Latin slipping off her tongue like silk. 

She returns to the vault and just before Kali sinks her talons into Erica’s throat, snatches the smirking wolf away.

“Still think you shouldn’t have said that to her,” she says as she glances backward at her own form huddled in the darkness with Boyd. They leave the bank together, the talisman giving them time to linger before they have to return to her time.

“Not my fault she’s pissed about her ex-girlfriend hooking up with your brother.”

It catches Cora off guard, the little twinkle in Erica’s eye as she makes the deductive leap, smarter than Cora gave her credit for. “I wasn’t sure if you knew...”

“I can feel you,” Erica shrugs, like that’s an explanation. Maybe it is.

x

She takes Lydia with her on her next trip back, shivering as they approach Oak Creek. It’s dark, and the clash of swords is nothing compared to the way Lydia’s breath cuts through the night.

“Where is she?” Lydia asks, and Cora has to sniff her out, find the scent of human in a sea of supernatural.

“There,” she points, watching the hunter pull back her string again. She knows the moment will come soon, when a silver arrow punctures an enemy and a silver blade punctures a friend. Time slows, and she and Lydia make their way through the battlefield, moving around the almost-frozen forms of their packmates. Cora scoops Allison up, breaking the time-hold on her body and forcing her into their space. The silver arrow has already been loosed, caught in the air between them and the darkness.

“I thought you were in South America,” Allison says, confused. Lydia can’t speak for crying.

"I was. Figured you guys could use a hand." She watches as the talisman glows, links her hands with Lydia's and Allison's both. The pull of their own time nearly makes her vomit, especially as she watches a sword slice through the air where Allison's body just was. 

She steels herself against it. There's no room for squeamishness on this tour of duty.

x

The last trip takes the longest to plan. She doesn’t know exactly where they’ll need to go, only the day and Derek’s estimates of the time. She gathers them up, one by one, the girls she needs to help her finish the job. Erica, Allison, Lydia, Kira, Malia, Braeden. Together, they are a force to be reckoned with. Together, they can save her.

The preserve is dark when the talisman has worked its magic. Her finger stings, and she can feel the magic tied to her just as surely as if she'd created the spell herself. Her blood, her will, her responsibility.  

She leads them, back protected by the powerful pack they make together. She reaches out with her ears and her nose, until the smell of pack and family and home overwhelms her, leads her to the place her sister stands wide-eyed staring at Peter.

“You don’t have to do this,” Laura’s saying, but Cora already knows what’s going to happen, how Peter will twist her words and her body and his teeth in her skin until the life fades out of her, the power fades into him.

“He does,” she says, stepping out of the shadows. At her right hand, Lydia trembles with the potential death hanging in the air. Just behind her, Allison and Braeden form a human battalion that would make any werewolf wary. Her left hand is Erica, strong and fierce, with Kira and Malia armed to the teeth at her side, ready to end this before it begins. “You might not recognize me, but -”

“Cora?” Laura’s voice is full of awe and wonder, and almost too late Cora recognizes Peter is going to try to make his move anyway. His claws flash in the moonlight right as an Argent arrow pins his arm to a tree.

“You wound me,” he sneers, and it isn’t her uncle, or maybe it is, and he was always this way, but she doesn’t care. She knows what he’ll do if she lets him.

“He’ll kill you,” she says to Laura. “We came to stop him.”

“There’s got to be another way,” Laura tries, compassionate to the end, always trying to undo the damage that is being done around her. Laura isn’t their mother. Cora’s glad.

“If we keep Peter from becoming the Alpha, he can’t bite Scott,” Kira says, and Cora understands what that costs her, saying it like that’s a good thing.

“If Scott’s not a wolf, there’s no pack,” Allison adds, and they feel it, heavy, the weight of what they’re doing.

“Playing with time isn’t quite so fun when you realize your boyfriend will always think you’re a monster, is it?” Peter pulls the arrow from his arm, breaking it in half. His face is still covered in scars, but Cora can’t feel sorry for him. Not when she knows what he’s done.

“It’s worth the risk,” Erica shrugs. She was epileptic, before. She could have died without the bite. She shrugs like it’s nothing. Cora’s heart sings with the knowledge.

“You don’t have to do it,” she tells Laura. “But don’t stop me.”

The fight is brief. Peter is outmatched, outmoded, and everyone in her pack is more than familiar with his methods. Lydia’s scream rings through the forest, deafening and final, as Peter sways on his knees, covered in his own blood. Kira holds her katana at his throat. Malia’s claws dig into his shoulders to keep him steady.

“I would have taken care of you,” he tells Cora as black blood dribbles out of his mouth. “You would never have to be afraid again. We’re family.”

“This,” she nods at the women around her, at Erica clinging to Laura’s side and Braeden with her gun to that nurse’s head and Allison with an arrow pointed at Peter’s heart and Lydia’s hand stuffed in her pocket. “This is family. And you’re the only thing I was afraid of.”

x

Her mother visits her in the night, in wolf form, as a dream or a memory or a ghost.

 _You didn’t come to me_ , Talia says. Cora clings to the talisman, burnt out with the use of it, stained with her own life. She’s the only one that remembers what it was like before. It’s better that way. Knowing is a burden, but it's an easy price to pay for what she has now.

_I had people to protect. It couldn’t be you._

_I know._ Talia looks like she’s smiling. She butts her head against Cora’s knee, and Cora reaches down and scratches her behind the ears. _You’ll make a good Alpha, when it’s your time._

Cora thinks of her pack of girls, of the damage they wrought together, of the lovely people they have become without the influence of Peter. She knows them all. History plays out the same in some ways regardless of how it starts. Some are wolves now, like her. Some aren’t, but they find one another anyway. She can feel them in her blood, smell them in the little house Laura bought for them, taste the chemical trail of their bond, stronger than friendship, closer than sisters. Pack.

 _This_ is _my time_ , she tells her mother. _I want it just like this_.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers: Peter Hale dies.
> 
> Your feedback is valuable to all fic writers, and I'm no exception. If you enjoyed this story, please let me know.
> 
> Come find me on [tumblr](http://quicklikelight.tumblr.com).


End file.
